Millwall's Shane Ferguson to have extra time off

SHANE Ferguson will be granted extra time off before re-joining his team-mates for pre-season training.

The Millwall winger will return to the club after a few weeks off, due to his involvement in Euro 2016 with Northern Ireland.

Ferguson started their opening game in the tournament, lasting just over an hour in a 1-0 defeat to quarter-finalists Poland, but did not feature in their remaining three games.

Despite a famous 2-0 win over Ukraine in the group stage, the Green and White Army exited the tournament in the Last 16, losing 1-0 to Wales.

"Shane will have an extra few weeks off ," said boss Neil Harris. "Everybody else will be training all the way through"

"He needs a break. He's had an intense competition and played some minutes, so he needs a rest now.

"We need to be careful with Shane when he comes back so that we don't burn him out too quickly.

"He'll have a few weeks off and he'll come back in the middle of July – he will almost be ready to go straight back into full training.

"Shane will go on holiday now and when he comes back he will have a few days where he will do some running and work on his own, but with the football, he can go right back into the sessions.

Harris added: "With Shaun Cummings and Christian Mbulu both still recuperating from injuries, he will have people he can do individual stuff with in a smaller group, as well as taking part in the full sessions.